The present invention relates to an improved relaying destination and designation system for facsimile transmission which is applicable to a relayed simulcast network.
A relayed simulcast network uses a facsimile apparatus having a store and sequential transmission function as a relay station and promotes the economical transmission of data to multiple remote stations, or destinations. This kind of network finds application as a facsimile network for communications between, for example, main and branch offices of the same company. What is required in designating destinations from the transmission request station to transmit to a relay station is simply the entry of the telephone numbers assigned to the respective destinations. It has been customary to assign codes for the telephone numbers of the destinations at the relay stations so that the operator at the transmission request station may easily enter the telephone numbers. Specifically, when originating a call, an operator usually enters a telephone number with an area code of the given terminal as a reference. Hence, in the case where the destination and the relay station are situated in the same area as the transmission request station, if the operator is allowed to enter the telephone number in such a manner as to include an area code in the telephone number of the destination, the operator will intuitively conceive the destination's number just as in usual origination of calls and, therefore, successfully enter the destination's number without errors.
Where the designated destination's number shares the same area code with the relay station, the relay station removes the area code and calls the destination using only the exchange number and subscriber's number. Likewise, where the destination is situated in the same area as the transmission request station, the operator at the latter need enter only the exchange number and subscriber's number as the destination's number, without adding the area code. When the destination's number lacks an area code, the relay station determines that the transmission request station and the designation are located in the same area and, thereby, calls the destination using a telephone number which is the combination of the area code associated with the transmission request station and the destination's number.
In such a manner, the destination is called by using a destination's telephone number entered with the transmission request station as a reference and adding or converting this to a telephone number which uses the area code of the relay station as a reference, thereby promoting the failure-free manipulation of the operator at the transmission request station.
The prior art system discussed above works in a desirable manner so far as a network is in the same nation. When it comes to an internationally routed sequential relayed network, however, the processing becomes impractical due to the variety of telephone systems which differ greatly from one nation to another.